Archive for Uncategorized
Posted by Steven Dalager on February 16, 2009
However, not all communities follow this model, and many of the arguments we participate in will make use of nonrational appeals (Berndt and Muse 138). I found this quote to be interesting because the authors are telling the reader that arguing as an effort to inquire can easily result in untrue data and facts. Arguing to inquire can be a sensitive process that should be approached in a professional way. Because visual arguments, especially advertisements, are aimed at us on a daily basis and affect the way we choose to live our lives, we need to get in the habit of viewing them critically and with awareness of their goals (Berndt and Muse 154). I found this quote to be interesting because people can be heavily persuaded in a positive direction by almost any commercial. If you are considering a product offered via commercial or a visual argument, it would be benificial to analyze what is really being offered and at what quality the product or service is.
Posted by Steven Dalager on February 16, 2009
I’m really sick of seeing that obnoxious moon all of the time. It just sits there in the sky with all of its’ craters; it doesn’t even have a proper name. I think I speak for everyone when I say, “we should use the moon as a test model for destroying a potential asteroid in the future. We could either destroy it with a nuclear weapon, or even get some powerful rockets to push it away into space. The tides aren’t really needed anymore because it’s 2009 and anyone who likes tides needs to see the dangers to them. For example if you are buried in the sand and left on the beach, you could die at high tide. However, with the moon gone the world would be a much more peaceful place.
Posted by Steven Dalager on February 12, 2009
I found the Omelas story to be somewhat interesting in sort of strange way. Often the young people go home in tears, or in a tearless rage, when they have seen the child and faced this terrible paradox (Le Guin 93). This was kind of a weird and imaginative story in which the problems of this “self-created” city were harnessed and locked away in this child. The rest of the chapter was ridiculous. It almost seems like it were written in the 90’s. Consider what keywords you will use before you conduct your search (Berndt and Muse 99). Are they being serious? I found a lot of other text that was just as “cave man” as this. This, however, was the quote I picked.
Posted by Steven Dalager on February 12, 2009
I attended the “Cheers! The Liquid Facts About Alcohol and College” seminar. It was quite interesting as it can be fun to learn drawbacks to drinking. There were a lot of topics discussed like what to watch out for at parties. I also attended the “Knitting- Stress Relief and a Garment Too” seminar, which was not as action packed as I thought it would be. I learned the basic method of knitting and enjoyed it a lot. I went with my friend Patrick to these events. They were pretty fun and it was a good day overall. The only thing I didn’t like was that there was a lot of repetition of common knowledge when it came to the alcohol seminar. Other than that everything was great.
Posted by Steven Dalager on February 2, 2009
Tranquility would probably be my strongest virtue. I believe it’s important to recognize things or accidents that are unavoidable, and not get angry or frustrated with them. For example, I won’t get angry at my employees when they call in and say that they’re stuck behind a train in Superior and will be a few minutes late. I witness a lot of people who are angry at this sort of unavoidable happening. My weakness would be frugality. I am the biggest waster of food in the world. It doesn’t bother me at all to throw away a whole sandwich or the rest of a dish. I don’t like leftovers and a lot of people get enraged when I throw away lots of food. I believe they are justified though, and I am trying to get better at saving things. I can see value in keeping a log on my virtues, however, it is time consuming and I don’t really see any real reason to do this.
Posted by Steven Dalager on January 26, 2009
I enjoyed this Ben Franklin piece the most even though it was probably the dullest read. I found his list of virtues to be the most interesting and important part of his writing. He lists; temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility, chastity, and humility as the virtues one should live by. The point of this article of writing is that being a positive person and following all of these virtues will lead to sucess and happiness. I found his point to be very interesting and I would agree with Ben fully. He really took a scientific approach to every day life and it also mentioned that he recorded all of his data on virtues every day for a year. This piece might make people think about their actions throughout the day every day. The only people this piece might offend are people who are infatuated with their negative life. This article probably will make a few people think, especialy about their day to day actions.
Posted by Steven Dalager on January 26, 2009
My subject of interest for this blog is the economy cartoon. Obviously the point to this political cartoon is that people’s mindset when buying things, escpecialy expensive items, is that instead of benefiting the store, they are benefiting the economy. I think this is a very real point. For example, last summer I finally received my economic stimilus check, which I then cashed and headed to Nevada Bob’s Golf, where I bought a rather expensive golf bag. As I was buying it my exact thoughts were, “this is for the economy,” so I can certainly relate. The audience for this cartoon would be an American one ages 19-120. I don’t necesarily think this cartoon will change anyones’ mind; maybe just people who buy expensive things who don’t already think of the economy. I doubt this cartoon would make anyone angry as it’s very light-hearted, however it might make somewhat selfish people think of the big picture, which is America and the failing economy.
Posted by Steven Dalager on January 20, 2009
I watched the innaguration of Barrack Obama on CNN. There were a couple of musical performences including Urethra Franklin and Yoyo Ma. I learned that the whole innaguration doesn’t last very long and it seemed like a fairly standard political happening. I enjoyed when Urethra Franklin was hitting the crazy notes. It made me laugh and I want that to be my ringtone. I didn’t like how boring the entire thing was. I found it to be very hard to sit there and listen to the presidents speech. It didn’t necesarily affect my idea of citizenship as it did reenforce it. To me it seemed like the cliche for America.
Posted by Steven Dalager on January 15, 2009
I really felt like an outsider when I lived in Illinois for two years. It was in the Northern Chicago area. I wasn’t really used to the big city and I didn’t really enjoy it much. Almost everyone was into being “ghetto,” and I just felt like being a normal kid. The school was actually pretty nice with good staff. I remember it being very boring, however without very many interesting activities. I ended up just hanging out with a lot of the kids, even though we shared a lot of differences. I really felt like a wasn’t a citizen of Illinois, however.
